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Speaker 1: Welcome to The Favorites, the podcast from the Action Network.

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Speaker 1: I I am Chad Millman and today back in a

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Speaker 1: triumphant return, Mr Bob Scucci. Later on in the show,

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Speaker 1: a rash Markazi columnist for The l A Times, my

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Speaker 1: former colleague ed ESPN, who has logged more miles, more

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Speaker 1: miles from l a X to Vegas than any human alive.

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Speaker 1: He is going to come on and talk Vegas raiders,

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Speaker 1: Vegas reopening, and a huge risk, a huge risk he

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Speaker 1: took that few people would ever bother taking. And and

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Speaker 1: before we get to any of that, we're gonna play

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Speaker 1: a new game here on the podcast. Matt Mitchell, producer extraordinaire,

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Speaker 1: tell our fans how to play. Thanks Chad, We are

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Speaker 1: calling on all of our listeners here at the Favorites

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Speaker 1: podcast to head the Apple Podcasts and give us a

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Speaker 1: five star rating and review, and if you do so,

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Speaker 1: you'll be entered to win a fabulous prize. All you

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Speaker 1: have to do is leave a review and include the

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Speaker 1: phrase the right side is the Winning Side, along with

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Speaker 1: your Twitter or Instagram handles, and one lucky reviewer will

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Speaker 1: receive a copy of The Odds the book, signed by

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Speaker 1: both author Chad Moment and the real author, Bob Scucci.

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Speaker 1: So leaving a review only takes about thirty seconds, and

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Speaker 1: we really appreciate it. If you're not sure where to

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Speaker 1: write the review, you just go to Apple Podcasts on

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Speaker 1: your phone, tap the favorite stile, scroll all the way

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Speaker 1: down the episodes list, and there at the bottom you'll

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Speaker 1: see ratings and reviews. Chad Scooch and the whole Action

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Speaker 1: Network crew really appreciate it. So thanks in advance. Good luck.

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Speaker 1: Back to you chat. We're back, baby, Scooch. I'm looking

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Speaker 1: right at you, Chad. What's going on? Man? You look fantastic, dude. Listen,

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Speaker 1: we've been keeping up. I'm talking to you fairly regularly

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Speaker 1: during uh the downtime, but it's nice to get you

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Speaker 1: back on. It feels like you haven't been on and forever.

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Speaker 1: Give me the rundown. What's happening at the Orleans, what's

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Speaker 1: happening with BOYD Gaming? What's happening in Las Vegas? Are

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Speaker 1: you back in the office. What's it like? So I'm

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Speaker 1: back in the office a couple of days a week. Um,

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Speaker 1: still working a lot remotely. I'm home right now, so

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Speaker 1: I'm working from home right now. I've got two offices.

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Speaker 1: One is at the Orleans and one is at the

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Speaker 1: corporate office, so I've been into both. Both are a

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Speaker 1: little still uh kind of hard to get used to

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Speaker 1: when you walk through the casino. Obviously it's uh it's

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Speaker 1: not as full as we would uh you know, like

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Speaker 1: to see it or used to seeing it. But I

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Speaker 1: was actually surprised when we opened that we have as

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Speaker 1: many people as we do. We have more people than

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Speaker 1: I thought we would. We opened on June four. We

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Speaker 1: opened seven of our sports books. A few of our

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Speaker 1: sports books, the smaller ones still haven't still haven't opened,

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Speaker 1: mainly just because the casino itself hasn't opened yet. And

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Speaker 1: I was surprised how many people were there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there was a ton of people there, and there was

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Speaker 1: no sports really going on that day, and the only

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Speaker 1: thing we we booked was a little bit of international soccer.

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Speaker 1: But we had some horse racing, golf stream was running

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Speaker 1: and a couple of other race tracks, and people were

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Speaker 1: lined up to bed and uh they were great about

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Speaker 1: you know, the new format and would telling them how

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Speaker 1: to stay six ft apart. And we had every other

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Speaker 1: teller uh stationed in in in the racing sports book

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Speaker 1: trying to maintain the distancing, and for the large part,

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Speaker 1: you know, we weren't mandating the wearing of masks, although

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Speaker 1: we highly encouraged it. Uh. Since then, the Governor's mandated

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Speaker 1: a couple of days ago as a Friday. So now

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Speaker 1: everyone's uh wearing masks and everybody's great about it. So

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Speaker 1: we have very very few uh complaints. I think people

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Speaker 1: were just more uh needed to have someplace to go to,

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Speaker 1: someplace safe, and someplace to kind of see their friends,

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Speaker 1: even if it is that a little bit of a distance.

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Speaker 1: All right. So I saw a picture I think the

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Speaker 1: night before Vegas opened, and it was from outside the Orleans.

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Speaker 1: It was right along the sidewalk there at that main

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Speaker 1: entrance where you pick up and drop off, and before

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Speaker 1: midnight there was a massive line standing outside the Orleans.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing in the world that I've ever felt like

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Speaker 1: I needed to be at as soon as it opened.

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Speaker 1: I certainly have never felt I need to be at

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Speaker 1: the casino before it opens, Like who the fund is

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Speaker 1: lining up to go to the Orleans At eleven fifty

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Speaker 1: five on June four, three months after a pandemic, when

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Speaker 1: the coronavirus is still out there. The Orleans is the

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Speaker 1: place to be. Man. I'm not even saying about the Orleans.

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Speaker 1: I'm saying who the fund is lining up at the

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Speaker 1: Pellaggio or the MGM or Mandalay or whatever. Everyone's different,

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Speaker 1: you know. So me personally, I don't like to line

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Speaker 1: up anywhere. I don't go. You don't have to line

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Speaker 1: up that anywhere, Scooch. I've got a place at the

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Speaker 1: front of every line, and if I have to wait

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Speaker 1: in line someplace, I'd rather not even go. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's me. But I'm in the minority there, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I've got some relatives I've got you know, my uncle Ray,

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Speaker 1: he's the first firston to be in line. And New

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Speaker 1: Year's Eve, the big crowds, and you know, everyone's different.

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Speaker 1: So I get it, especially if you know you have

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Speaker 1: a place that you've been going to for years, and

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Speaker 1: so you're leans. A lot of the people that have

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Speaker 1: been going there kind of live in the surrounding neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a combination of a locals place as

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Speaker 1: well as a destination resort. So we rely on a

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Speaker 1: lot of those uh folks that live around around the neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: and you know, after three months of being kind of

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Speaker 1: cooped up. They were just looking for a place to go.

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Speaker 1: So I get it. The only time I've never had

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Speaker 1: to wait in line was my bachelor party in Las

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Speaker 1: Vegas in June of night where and I thought we

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Speaker 1: were going out for a nice dinner, me and all

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Speaker 1: my buddies, and I went up to change clothes and

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Speaker 1: walked out of my room and walked into a buddy's

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Speaker 1: room and he's like, man, you look great, like thanks,

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Speaker 1: and he goes, it's not what you're wearing a night

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Speaker 1: and pulls out a polyester Elvis jumpsuit, a massive, massive

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Speaker 1: wig and the plastic gold rimmed sunglasses and says, this

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Speaker 1: is what you're wearing. And for the rest of the night,

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Speaker 1: I did not wait in a single line. You go

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Speaker 1: anywhere as Elvis, and you are getting free limo rides

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Speaker 1: and you go to the front of every single line.

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Speaker 1: But what's it like booking right now? I mean, we're

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Speaker 1: booking a lot of things that frankly we have no experience,

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Speaker 1: and you know, Japanese baseball, South Korean baseball, and uh,

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Speaker 1: some things that were just relying on the expertise of

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Speaker 1: some others, and uh, for only that there's not a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of professional betters that focus on that either.

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Speaker 1: So we're doing fairly well with it. But it's strange.

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Speaker 1: It's strange, not kind of you know, you fall into

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Speaker 1: a routine after all these years of following you know,

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Speaker 1: the box scores and following the news and following the

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Speaker 1: cycles and just not having any of those cycles. It's

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Speaker 1: just just strange, so kind of getting used to it all.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know, other than that, booking is booking,

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Speaker 1: whether it's uh, South Korean baseball or Major League baseball,

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Speaker 1: so that that parts the same, right, So explain what

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Speaker 1: you mean by that, Like we'll joke all the time

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Speaker 1: during the season that like you'll be losing, but imagine

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Speaker 1: how much worse it would be if I wasn't so

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Speaker 1: good a job, wasn't so good at bookmaking. So, like,

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Speaker 1: I assume you're talking about balancing understanding your liability where

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Speaker 1: the risk is explained to people. What you mean by that, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean part of bookmaking is minimizing your risk. And

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Speaker 1: even when you lose sometimes because of you're the way

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Speaker 1: you're booking, you're losing less than you would normally lose

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Speaker 1: if you you know, weren't as efficient. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of times we can have and I've talked about it before,

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Speaker 1: we can have our biggest losing days, you know, lose

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Speaker 1: a ton of money, and I'll feel good about the

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Speaker 1: day because I've done everything I could to minimize it,

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Speaker 1: and it could have been twice as bad. So so,

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Speaker 1: and it goes both ways. On winning days. I've had

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Speaker 1: days where we've won money and I don't feel half

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Speaker 1: as good because I feel we didn't book that well

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Speaker 1: and we should have won a lot more uh than

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Speaker 1: what we actually did win. So you're never quite happy

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Speaker 1: as a bookmaker, you know, even even if you uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, even if you have great days, you always

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Speaker 1: feel like you could do a little a little bit better.

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Speaker 1: And that's kind of the competitiveness and us. But when

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Speaker 1: we're talking about baseball, baseball still baseball, and if you're

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Speaker 1: dealing with a twenty cent line, now maybe because of uh,

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Speaker 1: we don't really know the players that well, we'll have

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Speaker 1: a thirty cent line instead of a twenty cent line,

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Speaker 1: or twenty cent line instead of a ten cent line,

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Speaker 1: so we'll kind of widen the gap a little bit

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Speaker 1: increase right, a radical hold only based only because we

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Speaker 1: don't know a whole lot about that sport a whole lot, Dude,

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Speaker 1: you don't know anything about like like, but doesn't that

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Speaker 1: make you nervous? Like? All right, here's the situation. It's COVID.

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Speaker 1: Everything is shut down, your book, like everyone's business is

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Speaker 1: sort of struggling and trying to figure out how can

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Speaker 1: we create some kind of product that can drive revenue.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, out from the distance comes Korean baseball.

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Speaker 1: Korean baseball, and comes Russian table tennis and all these

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Speaker 1: sports that none of us have any idea what they are,

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Speaker 1: and you're being asked all of a sudden, like it's

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Speaker 1: either make book on sports I don't know or don't

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Speaker 1: make anything. How are you, like the night before you're

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Speaker 1: supposed to start doing this, how are you even figuring

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Speaker 1: out what you're doing? Like I said, we'll call, uh,

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Speaker 1: We'll call some people that we were I on over

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Speaker 1: the years that uh uh, that that are have some

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Speaker 1: connections that uh uh they'll be able to contact people

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Speaker 1: who do follow it a lot more closely than than

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Speaker 1: the rest of us. So we have to rely on

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Speaker 1: other people, uh in those situations. And then after booking it,

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Speaker 1: then we become more proficient, then we do know a

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Speaker 1: little bit about it. And you know, give an example,

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Speaker 1: like years ago, UH, we we never really booked beach

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Speaker 1: volleyball uh and UH it was real popular with the

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian clientele that we had at our downtown properties. So

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Speaker 1: they come into town, you know, hundreds of of of

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Speaker 1: our Hawaiian guests, and they said, Hey, they got this

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Speaker 1: big beach hay and uh, this uh beach volleyball tournament.

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Speaker 1: Can you put odds on it? We didn't know anything

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Speaker 1: about it, so, you know, the first year we put

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Speaker 1: it up, we got beat. The second year we put

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Speaker 1: it up, we got the By the third year, we

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Speaker 1: had a pretty good understanding of it, and then we

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Speaker 1: started to actually know what we're doing. So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of the same thing with this. We'll rely on other

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Speaker 1: people's opinions at first. We have other tools in place

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Speaker 1: to minimize the risk. We're not gonna take twenty dollars

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Speaker 1: a game, you know, generally, UH, we'll probably limited to

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Speaker 1: two thousand dollars. Uh. That covers like the people that

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Speaker 1: actually want to bet. There's very few people who want

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Speaker 1: to bet more than that, and if they do, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's there's other flags that come up, you know, and

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Speaker 1: and so so they're easy to detect. You know, you

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Speaker 1: still want to keep the wise guys at bay, and

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Speaker 1: you still use the same ways of detecting them that

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Speaker 1: you do in other sports. I Uh, I'm feeling very

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Speaker 1: nostalgic this week because I knew you were coming on today.

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Speaker 1: Our old friend Alan Boston called me today. Uh. He

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Speaker 1: was in He was in very good spirits, which was great. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I did a podcast recently called The Window with

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Speaker 1: a guy named Matt Russell from Canada to broadcaster in Canada,

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Speaker 1: and he happens to be a guy who loves sports betting.

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Speaker 1: And he had called me like five years ago trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out how to sort of get his the

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Speaker 1: media business. He was working into feel comfortable sports betting.

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Speaker 1: He was as prepared as anybody who's ever interviewed me ever,

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Speaker 1: and um, it was amazing and uh and not just

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Speaker 1: because you know, it's fun to talk about yourself. He

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Speaker 1: asked so many questions about the odds and it made

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Speaker 1: me even more nostalgic than today. Karl Reiner dies and

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Speaker 1: like the first line of his obituary, which you would

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Speaker 1: never expects of the Ocean's eleven trilogy, and like Swingers

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Speaker 1: was on a few weeks ago, and Swingers like has

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Speaker 1: such a stardust feel to it. All of it makes

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Speaker 1: me sad that you can't go full bore and like

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Speaker 1: have hundreds of thousands of people in the casino. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a bittersweet, um, but uh, you know it's I

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Speaker 1: thought the canceling of Marchmaness Tournament was about the most

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Speaker 1: surreal thing that I had seen in the sports book,

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Speaker 1: just not seeing that canceled, So everything else after that

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Speaker 1: kind of paled in comparison. I mean, to me, that

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Speaker 1: was like the moon falling, right, you know, you just

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Speaker 1: didn't expect to see that. So, uh, you know, we're

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Speaker 1: just kind of learning to to deal with things that

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Speaker 1: we've never never dealt with before. Matt Russell did ask

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Speaker 1: me why you weren't in the book more. I came

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Speaker 1: up with like a fake answer, which was, you know,

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Speaker 1: Joe Lupo ran the sports book and he was sort

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Speaker 1: of the primary character. And Scooch was a great guy

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Speaker 1: who gave me a lot of background and explained things

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Speaker 1: to me. And that's when I knew he was so

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Speaker 1: good at this. And I begged me to do the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I didn't want to tell him. There were just too

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Speaker 1: many stories that I wasn't allowed to talk about. You

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Speaker 1: should have seen when when that book came out. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know that you and I didn't talk about anything

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Speaker 1: that was going in the book or out of the book.

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Speaker 1: We just hoped him prayed. So so Joe, Joe Lupo

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Speaker 1: and I when that book came out, the first thing

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Speaker 1: we did was like, what's in here's the one we're

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Speaker 1: going true. Okay, he kept that out. That's great, kept

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Speaker 1: this out? That was great. So yeah, I agree, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot that we kept out. I can't even remember

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Speaker 1: what I wish I had put in reminder to listeners,

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Speaker 1: go into Apple Podcasts, go to the favorites, you rate

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Speaker 1: this as a five star, you give it a review,

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Speaker 1: You drop the scooches um the right side is that

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Speaker 1: a melmanism or a scooch is um? The right side

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Speaker 1: is the winning side in the review? Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: that was yours. That was mine. And uh, you may

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Speaker 1: be lucky enough to get a signed copy of The Odds,

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Speaker 1: the very book we were talking about right now. It

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Speaker 1: will be signed by both me and Bob Scucci, who

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Speaker 1: may or may not have been in the book. What

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Speaker 1: did you miss most? What did you miss most before

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Speaker 1: you got back to work? Well, I mean I missed

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Speaker 1: the action. I mean just having that it felt like,

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Speaker 1: uh like, even when I go on vacation, there's still

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Speaker 1: you're You're still trying to keep up with all the

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Speaker 1: sports and all the major events, the transactions that are

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Speaker 1: going on. Trying to fill that void every day was

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Speaker 1: it was a lot. I mean, you just it's a

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Speaker 1: part of your life for thirty years and then suddenly

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Speaker 1: there's just there's nothing, you know, so it's like, what

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Speaker 1: do you do in the meantime? I mean, I've got

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Speaker 1: some some projects going on that are kind of non

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Speaker 1: sports related. We're in transition transition with some of our

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Speaker 1: Nevada casinos here, so I've had stuff to keep me occupied.

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Speaker 1: But just the lack of that sports and just the habit.

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Speaker 1: You know, my my wife was kind of making fun

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Speaker 1: of me because one night I'm sitting there watching the

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Speaker 1: nineteen four World Series with the Padres and the Tigers.

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Speaker 1: She's like, what are you really like that Jones? And

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Speaker 1: for a sport? I mean, and I wasn't. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it was just on and I was like, hey, I

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Speaker 1: remember this, and but but yeah, you kind of need

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Speaker 1: some of that to to kind of keep you going.

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Speaker 1: So when when Michelson match with with Tiger Woods was on,

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Speaker 1: that was a whole event for me. You know, I had,

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Speaker 1: I had the snacks going on. I was like five

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Speaker 1: hours of my day that I'm just right in front

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Speaker 1: of the TV. I know, it was so great when

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Speaker 1: that happened. When the Michelson, Brady and Manning and Tiger

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Speaker 1: Woods match happened, we were supposed to go have a

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Speaker 1: social distance evening with friends, and I kept texting my buddy,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, five more minutes, I gotta watch the end

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Speaker 1: of this. Five more minutes, I gotta watch the end

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Speaker 1: of this. Like I didn't want to get off the couch,

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Speaker 1: and like it was a Sunday afternoon. I made myself

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Speaker 1: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I like had a

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Speaker 1: bag of son chips. I even had like a glass

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Speaker 1: of chocolate milk. It was so good to just sit

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Speaker 1: on the couch and watch sports. And normally I get

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Speaker 1: to say that because it's my job, I have to

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Speaker 1: be watching it. To have it as an afternoon and

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Speaker 1: I'm just like, I gotta do this, and I'm ignoring everybody.

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Speaker 1: It was a it was a freaking gift, just took

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Speaker 1: you away for a minute instead of thinking about everything

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Speaker 1: that's going on in the world right now. Well, Scooch,

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Speaker 1: everyone says it's coming back. We got baseball coming back,

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Speaker 1: we got NBA coming back, and right now everyone seems

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Speaker 1: to say it's still happening. And hopefully they do start

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Speaker 1: and uh, they do get to finish their season, sixty

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Speaker 1: game season in Major League Baseball. Like, I've been getting

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Speaker 1: so many questions about how you handicap a home run winner,

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Speaker 1: a h season win total, a m v P, a

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Speaker 1: Cy Young, all of these things, um, in sixty game season.

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Speaker 1: I want to get your take how you're thinking about

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Speaker 1: handicapping these, and then I wanna give you my take,

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Speaker 1: which is probably more interesting to me. Well, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: your take is a lot more interesting because we're just

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Speaker 1: taking season season numbers and just dividing it by the

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Speaker 1: percentage of what they would normally play and just kind

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Speaker 1: of coming up with a with a number, um that's

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Speaker 1: just strictly formulated by by the math of a full season.

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Speaker 1: So nothing terribly exciting in the handicapping of putting up

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Speaker 1: the number. We'll let everyone else kind of drive the

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Speaker 1: number up and down once we quote them up. I'm

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Speaker 1: looking a lot of park metrics. What I'm really doing

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Speaker 1: is reading Shanzarillo at Action Network, reading any story in

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Speaker 1: our app that he writes, because he's as good at

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Speaker 1: baseball as anyone, and he loves the Reds right now

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Speaker 1: and sort of a shortened season. But park metrics, it's

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Speaker 1: all wacky this year because the teams are not traveling

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Speaker 1: all over the country there, park metrics are going to

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Speaker 1: have a much bigger impact. Like if Mandy Machado plays

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Speaker 1: horrible in San Diego but is amazing in Colorado, but

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Speaker 1: they're having fewer games in Colorado, or he's amazing at

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Speaker 1: shay Or City Field, but he's got fewer games and

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Speaker 1: shty cy shitty field city Field, like all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: that as an impact, it's not as easy as just

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Speaker 1: dividing and percentages and sort of all that simple math.

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Speaker 1: You're talking about skeeds. Where are you getting the most

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Speaker 1: traction right now for odds to win the World Series

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Speaker 1: and for season win totals were I mean, right now,

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Speaker 1: they're not driving a whole lot of handle because I

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Speaker 1: think everyone just wants to see. I mean, there's different

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Speaker 1: rules involved, especially with the season win totals from operator

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Speaker 1: to operator. So I think that's one thing that you

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Speaker 1: just have to be careful of in terms of, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not standard of the required number of

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Speaker 1: games in order for you to have action. Uh and

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Speaker 1: and they may differ from place to place. So if

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Speaker 1: you do see some drastic odds, I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: just look at at the number of games that's required

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Speaker 1: for for action. So I think, but at least here

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Speaker 1: in Vegas, they're kind of keeping an arms length from

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Speaker 1: from those type of props right now, only because they're

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Speaker 1: just really not sure. They don't want to tie up

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Speaker 1: their money for for that long of a time period

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Speaker 1: and then not know if they're just going to get

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Speaker 1: a refund on it. But you know, so just the

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Speaker 1: normal kind of the teams that were kind of vented

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Speaker 1: last year still still driving uh most of the bets

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, teams like the Yankees and Dodgers

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Speaker 1: because they're just the popularity. But but it's not we're

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Speaker 1: not getting a whole lot of the sharp play that

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Speaker 1: you would normally see on those type of props. Have

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Speaker 1: you figured out what the minimum number of games is

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Speaker 1: going to be for you guys to pay off of that?

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Speaker 1: So we have partners in outside of Nevada, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of times are our house rules don't always metch

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Speaker 1: so we're trying to make them as consistent as possible.

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Speaker 1: So I'm still working with those guys to to kind

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Speaker 1: of get to that uh that final number so still

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Speaker 1: up in the air, all right. So then let's talk

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Speaker 1: about NBA for a second, because they've been talking about

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Speaker 1: coming back for a lot longer, so maybe you've had

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Speaker 1: a chance to sort of think a little bit differently.

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Speaker 1: Here's the one question. As you know, I'm pretty famous,

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Speaker 1: and so I do a lot of radio shows, and

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Speaker 1: here's the one question I get asked about more than

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Speaker 1: any other, the value or lack of value that home

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Speaker 1: court advantage now doesn't have, and what that does to

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Speaker 1: even the playing field for teams like the Rockets against

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Speaker 1: sort of the Big Three and the Clippers, Lakers and

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Speaker 1: uh Bucks. So yeah, I mean that's the question everyone

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Speaker 1: was asking even before the shutdown, when they were talking

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Speaker 1: about playing in arenas with with no fans, and obviously

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Speaker 1: every arena has a slightly different home court advantage, and

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Speaker 1: baseball has a slightly different home field advantage. Uh So, Uh,

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Speaker 1: I mean that's the that's the unknown. But if you're

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Speaker 1: asking me as a as a book acre, um, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty standard. In the NBA. We just subtract that, Uh,

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Speaker 1: what would normally be a four point home three point

399
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Speaker 1: home court advantage four point or five point home court advantage,

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Speaker 1: take that out of the number, and uh just use

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Speaker 1: basically the road number. So you know, usually when you're

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Speaker 1: making odds and you have your your your stats in

403
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Speaker 1: front of you, you're looking at it away number, a

404
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Speaker 1: neutral field or home number, and so you're just gonna

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Speaker 1: use that neutral field number on on every one of them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I'm not even thinking about UM fans and how

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Speaker 1: they could impact. I'm thinking about the creature comforts of home,

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Speaker 1: like the lack of travel that comes when you're an

409
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Speaker 1: NBA player. You get to stay in your own bed,

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Speaker 1: you get to take the normal route to the stadium,

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Speaker 1: you get to drive your own car. Uh, you're comfortable

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Speaker 1: with the stadium with the optics, the literal optics, the angles,

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Speaker 1: you know, dead spots like things like that that are

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Speaker 1: sort of tricks of the trade, Like the Bucks don't

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Speaker 1: have any more of an advantage with that than the

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Speaker 1: Rockets do at this point, so to me, like I

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Speaker 1: might be more inclined to bet the Rockets at twelve

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Speaker 1: to one tend to whatever they are than the Bucks

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Speaker 1: that a little bit less than three to one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, most of the studies done on home court advantages, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, like when you when you looked at all

422
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Speaker 1: the star players statistics at home versus a way, they

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Speaker 1: were always pretty similar. So in terms of the statistics

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Speaker 1: themselves on those players, if there was no difference home

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Speaker 1: and away, then really you know what made them player

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Speaker 1: play better at home and what gave them a better

427
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,919
Speaker 1: win ratio at home? And what it always seemed to

428
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 1: come back to was officiating. And not to suggest that

429
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:56,119
Speaker 1: the officiating was intentionally malicious, it's just having that home

430
00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:02,639
Speaker 1: crowd just subconsciously effects the uh those close decisions, you know,

431
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: those bang bang plays and and so, like all these

432
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: studies have been done, there's been some pretty good articles.

433
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,600
Speaker 1: I can't cite some of the authors I can't remember,

434
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,439
Speaker 1: but uh, there's been some pretty good studies on that.

435
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: So it almost always comes down to the officiating, whether

436
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: it's the umpires in baseball or the or the referees

437
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 1: in football. And so that tells you so without the fans,

438
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:27,359
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily have that officiating bias that you would

439
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:31,240
Speaker 1: normally have with a full arena or full stadium. So yes,

440
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: there's probably some degree of familiarity with the court or

441
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: like you said, in baseball, it probably has the biggest

442
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,960
Speaker 1: uh bias, only because every park is is a little

443
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,959
Speaker 1: bit different and once the players, you know, have a

444
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,399
Speaker 1: feel for their home field, it's different. But you know,

445
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: every basketball same, every basketball courts the same, every football

446
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: field is the same. Uh So I always have to

447
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 1: go back to the officiating in terms of what really

448
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: drives that home field advantage. Well, I gotta tell you

449
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: that has been discussed the least in any conversation I've

450
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: had about the NBA coming back. Is the impact of

451
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 1: officiating home versus a way. And so how do you

452
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: account for that? Well, you don't really in the in

453
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 1: making of the number. That's why I say there's an

454
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:18,880
Speaker 1: intrinsic number. And then we'll kind of let the we'll

455
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,040
Speaker 1: let the betters kind of uh discuss which which which

456
00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:25,240
Speaker 1: is the best angle. I mean, that's nothing different than

457
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: you have two opposing views from the handicappers themselves on

458
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,880
Speaker 1: what the right angle is. And and that's always been

459
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: the success of handicapp Handicapping is kind of knowing what's

460
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 1: not built into the number right, So this is how

461
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 1: you get to that number, and then you know, your

462
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,159
Speaker 1: success as a handicapper is finding out what's not built

463
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 1: into that and then whether or not that applies and

464
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: how successful you'll be. How quickly do you think you

465
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 1: will adjust once NBA games come back? What will you

466
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: need to start making adjustments? I mean, how many games

467
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 1: was under our belt? Yeah, probably by the first three

468
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,399
Speaker 1: or four days. Um, we'll see if they're you know,

469
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: what kind of trends there are, and uh, you know,

470
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: whether there's more scoring, less scoring, more enthusiasm less enthusiasm. Um,

471
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: you know that has to affect the players as well,

472
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: not having the fans in the stadium and and you know,

473
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: some some players just rise to an occasion based on

474
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,679
Speaker 1: kind of that momentum and that feeling. So you know,

475
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: without that, uh, you know, maybe maybe those guys that

476
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,879
Speaker 1: were averaging twenty one points a game suddenly only average

477
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, you know, So there's a lot of unknowns

478
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the beauty of it. And guess what,

479
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: God willing, God willing, we are going to find out

480
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 1: all the answers come and hopefully we get to keep

481
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 1: seeing the answers all the way through the middle of October.

482
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: Give me odds right now, odds that the NFL plays

483
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:11,199
Speaker 1: a full season. Who I think, Uh, you're probably like,

484
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: if you had to bet, yes that they're gonna play

485
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: a full season, I'd probably give you three to two.

486
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,360
Speaker 1: Three to two is pretty good. Yeah, yeah, i'd give

487
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: you three. I'd probably give you a dollar fifty. What

488
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: what makes you feel that way? Um, because I think,

489
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: having already closed down everything, it's gonna be a last

490
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: resort and things would have to get um, you know,

491
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: escalated pretty quickly in order for everything to close down again.

492
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 1: So I think I think they're gonna start the season. However,

493
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,960
Speaker 1: I just feel that certain spots are gonna get a

494
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,679
Speaker 1: little worse than others, and then they're gonna make some adjustments.

495
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,919
Speaker 1: That's gonna cause one game, two, game, three, game, you know,

496
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: undetermined number of games. But to play a full season

497
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: in this in these conditions I think it'd be an underdog. Sadly,

498
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: I don't like. I'm a pessimist by nature. I don't like.

499
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: I don't like the way you're headed. And in Vegas,

500
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 1: I would think there is tremendous excitement, enthusiasm, optimism, and

501
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 1: also like we're not shutting this football thing down until

502
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: like it's the last possible second, just because the Raiders

503
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 1: opening a new stadium in the town, Like the euphoria

504
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: has to be beyond belief. The excitement around this town. That's, uh,

505
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: you know, even even greater than when the Vegas Golden

506
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,479
Speaker 1: Knights first started that that first year, because I mean

507
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,199
Speaker 1: people care more about the NFL than the NHL. That's crazy.

508
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,880
Speaker 1: Who would have thought that. Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. So

509
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: so yeah, the excitement and then every time I drive

510
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: by that stadium and you know, you can see it,

511
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: you know from the Orleans, you come out of the

512
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: Orleans and you're looking right at it and it's a beautiful,

513
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: beautiful stadium, and you know, just you get exciting just

514
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: driving by and looking at it, and then just you

515
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,920
Speaker 1: know they're gonna be coming here after all these years.

516
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,120
Speaker 1: I'm not having a professional friend franchise and now we've

517
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 1: got some. It's it's really exciting, and I think everyone

518
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 1: shares that here in Vegas. So nobody's looking forward to

519
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: anything ever being shut down again. But to ask, if

520
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: one or two games somewhere along the line, if you

521
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: know one team has to miss or another team has

522
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: to miss, you know, it's just like I said, a

523
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: small underdog, not a big underdog. All right, listen, would

524
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 1: you lay it or would you take it? I am

525
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: going to believe that if they start playing, they're not stopping,

526
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: and you lay a dollar seventy dollar eighty, I would

527
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: lay that, Yeah, right, I would. I would if your

528
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 1: optimism if you're booking, If you're booking, I'll take it. Listen, Scooch,

529
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: you I hope it happens, and I hope that. Uh.

530
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: I hope that you don't have to wait in line

531
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: for parking. You go to games, you don't like to

532
00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: leave your house. I can't believe you'd go to games.

533
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: I really don't like to leave my house. Uh. If

534
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 1: if I have the suite, then I'll go. So, uh

535
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 1: does BOYD Gaming have a suite? Do? Uh? And then

536
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: so and I've been invited some of our some of

537
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 1: our other vendors and some of our other people that

538
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: we we deal with, they have sweets and so I'm

539
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 1: on the I'm on the invite list. Ah yeah. Our

540
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: our boyd suite at the UH at the Tea Mobile

541
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,000
Speaker 1: said when we when I get tickets for the Vegas

542
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: Golden Nights, it's unbelievable. You know, you drive, you park

543
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 1: your car like literally right next to the suite, so

544
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: you have your own entry. You don't have to wait

545
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: for like the cars that are in front of you

546
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: drive right up, You get out of your car and

547
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 1: you're basically in the suite. I mean, it's fantastic. Scooch

548
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 1: doesn't wait. Scooch doesn't wait at all. And reminder everybody

549
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: go to the favorites page and Apple podcasts, rate and

550
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: review the podcast. Use the phrase the right side is

551
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: the winning side. We will randomly choose a winner to

552
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: get a signed copy of the odds and you will

553
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: not have to wait for that because Scuoche and I

554
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: will both do it expeditious ly. Scooch, I feel like

555
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: it might be time for you to just start coming

556
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,040
Speaker 1: back on like every week or so whatever. We've gotta

557
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: figure out our schedule. I might have to do that.

558
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: This was fun, all right, man, It was good to

559
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 1: see you. Miss you you doo man, see every take care.

560
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: Coming up next on the podcast, as promised, a rash

561
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 1: Mar Kazi columnist l A Times traveling in Vegas on

562
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: a NonStop pattern. He's going to talk all about the

563
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: biggest risk he's taken. A local boy made good USC legend,

564
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: l A legend, my friend and former colleague from ESPN,

565
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 1: Mr Rosch Markazi, my brother. How are you, man, oh

566
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: man is Chevit's listen. Whatever whatever I think about you,

567
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 1: I always think about We went to dan Tanis one

568
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: night in l a A and it was like there's

569
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: been a lot of cool nights to have in l

570
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 1: A and like when you have your job and when

571
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: I used to have my job, Like you could do

572
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: a lot of cool things in l A. But that

573
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: dantan Is night, like it just felt so cool and connected,

574
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: like you knew every single person. Well, that is quintestential.

575
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: Hollywood is to Dantana's and so m it's a great

576
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 1: place in the history on the walls. It is one

577
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: of my favorite places to go. So it's also important

578
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: to note, like you're sort of in l a legend

579
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 1: for people who don't know that you've been around l

580
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: A forever. You grew up there, and then you went

581
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: to USC and now you're a part of the journalism

582
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 1: program there, so you have a lot of students coming through.

583
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: But what's most interesting to me, and then you are

584
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:47,719
Speaker 1: ESPN for a long time, and we're gonna get into that.

585
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: Now you're at the l A times, what's most interesting

586
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: to me is like how you've managed the way you

587
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,120
Speaker 1: are perceived by everybody in l A in which you

588
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: were able to do critical coverage and yet still everybody

589
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 1: seems to wanna talk to you. I hope that that

590
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:09,720
Speaker 1: that's the case. Sometimes it's probably not, but I think

591
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: as long as you're authentic, as long as you're yourself,

592
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: I genuinely like hanging out with the people. Every year,

593
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 1: I have a birthday party, despite turning forty, I kind

594
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: of use like my birthday as an excuse to like

595
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: bring like everyone who covers whatever sport because I'm so

596
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: lucky that I don't just cover like one team or

597
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 1: one sport, so you know, that's like the one day

598
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: of the year like I kind of like like to

599
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: invite like everyone in town just to kind of catch up.

600
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: Like I genuinely like hanging out with people. I like

601
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: talking with people, Like I love the job that I

602
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: do because like it gives me like an excuse to

603
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:44,760
Speaker 1: sit down with people and pick their brain and chat

604
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: with them. But to your point, this is a dream

605
00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 1: job for me because this is my city. I love

606
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: Los Angeles so much. I grew up here, so to

607
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: be able to cover not only the Lakers of Dodgers, Clippers,

608
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: USC and all those teams, but to do it for

609
00:32:57,760 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times. And I know we've talked about

610
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,720
Speaker 1: that before, where I mean, that's a dream job and

611
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: it's still so cool to me that I get to

612
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 1: pick up the paper and I get to see my

613
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 1: name there. All Right, So before we started recording, you

614
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 1: told me that you're going to one of our mutually

615
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: favorite cities tonight. It's a city that when we worked

616
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 1: together at ESPN became your beat. You're going to Vegas.

617
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: How many times? How many miles do you think you

618
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:28,200
Speaker 1: have from l A to Vegas? Okay, so you helped

619
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: coin this beat that I've kind of carried with me

620
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: to the Times, covering the flightpath between Las Vegas and

621
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. We started at six when Vegas Golden Ice,

622
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: which hadn't been named yet, they were about to get

623
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: their first pro sports team, and we did feel at

624
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: that point that that was sort of like the beginning

625
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 1: of this big trend. And to be honest, let me

626
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 1: go back with the first moment when I switched to

627
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: work with you and Dan Coffman and stuff, who was

628
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 1: t Mobile Arena just opened up, and they opened it

629
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: with the per b of housing a professional team, whether

630
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 1: it was the NBA and the the the m NHL

631
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:07,479
Speaker 1: for both, which they still would like to do at

632
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 1: some point. I do not know. I do know that

633
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: I've grown to love the city as my second home

634
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: or I there was a time where I was like

635
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:18,919
Speaker 1: maybe I should just like move there. But but it's

636
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: one of those cities, as you know, Chad, It's like

637
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 1: it's such a relationship town where like you walk around

638
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 1: town and like you got your restaurant that you like

639
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: to go to, where your bar you like you go to,

640
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: and your casino host or bartender, and it's like, you know,

641
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: it is a real community. So when the shooting happened

642
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: in Vegas, where I always hold people is that it's

643
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 1: not just a straight of these people live in Henderson

644
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,240
Speaker 1: to live in Summerland, they live in the north Las Vegas,

645
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,439
Speaker 1: they have families, they have I mean there's a ton

646
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 1: of high schools. I mean people would be shocked at

647
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: the number of high schools or in Las Vegas. So

648
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: it is a community. And so I've really been fortunate

649
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 1: that that job carried over to the Times as well.

650
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: So it's interesting you mentioned the key word there, which

651
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 1: is relationships. Right, like the reason why I think we

652
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: all collectively felt taking you off of the l A

653
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: Clippers beat and having you cover something a little bit

654
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: broader that took advantage of your connections and your ability

655
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 1: to create relationships and just find cool stories and do

656
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: that between l A and Vegas, which are two of

657
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: the cities where you are, you have to be the

658
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 1: most connected in order to get something cool and different

659
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: that is more than just a game story. That led

660
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: to me to my favorite a rash Markazi Vegas story,

661
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: which is this show is sort of becoming like a

662
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: let's celebrate Vegas show. Because earlier I had I had

663
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 1: Bob Scucci, a bookmaker at your league, so I've known forever. Uh,

664
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 1: we were talking about the reopening and so tell me

665
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: about like the j R. Smith experience. So this is

666
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,799
Speaker 1: sort of the couple of days before they're about to

667
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,200
Speaker 1: get their hockey team. The league is about to announce

668
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,120
Speaker 1: that Vegas is that, and we knew that this one's

669
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But that was basically why I was there.

670
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: I was really excited for Las Vegas. I think the

671
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 1: whole community was so excited to get their first professional

672
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 1: sports team. So I am watching. I'm at w w

673
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:10,720
Speaker 1: WE pay per view actually, and I'm watching Game seven

674
00:36:10,719 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: of the NBA Finals. Amazing classic game. The game is over,

675
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 1: I'm like, what a cool moment. Go back, and I

676
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 1: get a text from my friend at the Hexcess nightclub

677
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 1: where he's like, hey man, great game. I'm like, oh

678
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 1: my god, you're telling me it was fantastic. He's the

679
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,839
Speaker 1: as you're coming through, like when, like next week? Like

680
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 1: tell me when and maybe I'll book a flight back.

681
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no no, no, they're coming tonight. I'm like,

682
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: what do you mean tonight. They're in Oakland. We just

683
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,280
Speaker 1: watched him. He's like, I know they're not getting party

684
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: up in San Francisco or like in Oakland. They're fine

685
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Right now, we're sending up the table you

686
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: should come over, and I'm like, well, we're saying that

687
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,360
Speaker 1: would happen is like I would just go to the

688
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:48,880
Speaker 1: club and we want to put by myself and not

689
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:50,880
Speaker 1: by myself, but there wouldn't be anything there. But I

690
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: I show up there they were, They're ready for the cabs.

691
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 1: They got all this champagne, they got all this stuff going.

692
00:36:57,239 --> 00:36:59,479
Speaker 1: And the next thing, I know, like here's Lebron, here's

693
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: Jr's if here's you know, all the the and the

694
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:05,759
Speaker 1: entire team is there. And then listen so that they're

695
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: on a stage at this point, you know, because if

696
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 1: everyone's like let them enjoy that even and like I'll

697
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 1: let them do. It's like they're they're up on a

698
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: platform by the DJ. There's like a professional photographer to

699
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: my left or right. There's like there's they're shooting this

700
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:21,840
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm gonna join them in this action.

701
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:24,760
Speaker 1: So I did that in one of those cool moments,

702
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 1: by the way, where you know you're you're the only

703
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 1: one there who's gonna put this out there for people

704
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: to see. Becauld like the the other thing they're they're

705
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 1: having the biggest pool party, which they normally have on Sundays.

706
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 1: So I knew the videos that I was, you know,

707
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: the pictures were gonna reach a wide audience. But it

708
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:44,640
Speaker 1: was one of those surreal moments where I'm like wow,

709
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 1: like it was like Lebron, it was Vegas. But then

710
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm on Sports Center with Kerry

711
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:54,319
Speaker 1: Champion basically giving uh the play by play. Either you

712
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: gave me a different version of the story when you

713
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,919
Speaker 1: first told me when we were talking about it many

714
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: years ago, or you just changed it, which was you

715
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 1: were already in your room in bed. I was no, no, no,

716
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 1: a hundred percent totally in bed. Yeah, I mean I

717
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 1: because at that point when I got the call from

718
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 1: the friend, I was back at the Cosmo, like I

719
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: was in my room. I was in my shorts. It

720
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:17,719
Speaker 1: was one of those moments where you're like, you know,

721
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:21,280
Speaker 1: turning out the lights. Almost a call that I ignored,

722
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 1: you know, because You're like, Okay, what's there's gonna be

723
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: no good at me come, you know. But it was

724
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: like around midnight or a little bit before midnight and

725
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: exact time. But I was definitely calling it like I

726
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna go out it was Sunday night. I knew

727
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: I had to wake up early, but that's crazy. That

728
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: was one for the books. No, that was and it

729
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 1: was incredible story. And it was a video that ricocheted

730
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: of j R. Smith spraying champagne and it was the

731
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:50,839
Speaker 1: beginning of sort of him being shirtless for like three

732
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: straight weeks. Really was you know, because he got off

733
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: the plane without the shirt, he did the parade without

734
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 1: the shirt. He probably did a couple of talk shows

735
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: without this. So I walked in, he walked in with

736
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: his shirt. He did not wear a shirt for another

737
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:09,799
Speaker 1: week or so. How amazing was that? So so now

738
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 1: you're at the times and like you did something and

739
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: when we when we do these shows, a lot of

740
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: times we talked about like risks people take, right, and

741
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 1: it's it's about betting obviously on a day to day basis,

742
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: but there are people who take risks with their lives

743
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: all the time. And you about, i'd say, eighteen months ago,

744
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:33,239
Speaker 1: twenty months ago, did something that was incredibly risky, and

745
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,200
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of stories about it recently, but

746
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 1: it's always been something that like I was super proud

747
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 1: to see you go through this and wanted you to

748
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 1: sort of talk a little bit about what you did

749
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 1: and what some of the response has been. Yeah, So,

750
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: um September, I decided to lose weight, and it was

751
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 1: very public about that, only because I felt I needed

752
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 1: to be publicly accountable, like because I think that there

753
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:00,799
Speaker 1: has been so many times I tried to do it

754
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:03,880
Speaker 1: on my own, and then I would just quit. And

755
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 1: so when you do it on your own and you're

756
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: by yourself, like, it's not hard to just quit. But

757
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:11,120
Speaker 1: then I put it out there that today's day one,

758
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 1: and I haven't done a good job. It was three

759
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:17,760
Speaker 1: nine pounds um five ft six or seven. I'm I'm short,

760
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of way to carry around, a

761
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 1: lot of way to just live your life with in

762
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: terms of just walking and breathing and sleeping and things

763
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:26,800
Speaker 1: like that. And so I put it out there and

764
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: I was always like, even now, like amazed by that date, Tuesday,

765
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 1: September twenty only because I always made it a point

766
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: to start like the first of the month or the

767
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 1: first of the year, the first of the week, and

768
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 1: so I was like, no, forget it. I didn't start Monday,

769
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 1: but shoot, Tuesday September the day like I'm not gonna

770
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: wait till like, you know, like October one, I'm not

771
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: gonna wait till Monday, or you know, I'm gonna start

772
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 1: today and then, um, the response was overwhelming. I think

773
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 1: that's what really got me going because ten days into

774
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,200
Speaker 1: that trip, I was back in Vegas and I forget

775
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 1: for it, but I was back in Vegas for work. Um,

776
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: and that would have been really like and easy for

777
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 1: me at that point to kind of just go back

778
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:08,719
Speaker 1: to doing what I did before, which was like a

779
00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:10,879
Speaker 1: poorly and not work out. But I was amazed. Every

780
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:12,799
Speaker 1: day that I was in Vegas. On that particular trip,

781
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: I went to the gym, I worked out. I eight right.

782
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 1: I think I had like one cheat meal. But the

783
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:21,920
Speaker 1: cool thing about it because I had done such a

784
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: good job up until that point. The key for me

785
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: of making the switches. I couldn't get the seatbelt to fit,

786
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:32,120
Speaker 1: and on that trip to Vegas, I got the seat

787
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,319
Speaker 1: belt to fit. It was snug, but it was a

788
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: big moment that what I was doing was working. The

789
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: days later and it's late, you know, because it wasn't

790
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:44,799
Speaker 1: like like I was big and when I when I

791
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: got it to click, it wasn't like, oh, I have

792
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 1: room to spare, but it was cool that I didn't

793
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,080
Speaker 1: need the extender, because the extender was really what got

794
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: me going, you know. I um remember that flight, like

795
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 1: I couldn't get the seatbelt to fit, and at that

796
00:41:57,520 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: point in time, like, you know, you're big, but for

797
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:01,399
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I always kind of lucky, I guess with

798
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: my seatbelt and it fit. It was always type of

799
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:06,759
Speaker 1: it fit. On this particular occasion it couldn't. And then

800
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: the flight attendant was like, you need your seatbelt and

801
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 1: I was like pretending I was sleeping and she but

802
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: she saw the look at my face and discreetly handed

803
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:19,439
Speaker 1: me an extender, and I was just remember being so

804
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 1: embarrassed by what I had done with myself and how

805
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 1: I let myself ge get to this point, and it's

806
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 1: like I'm getting that today's the day that I'm going

807
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 1: to change. So I'm glad she didn't walk past, because

808
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 1: if she would have walked past, I mean, hopefully there

809
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 1: would have been another moment in time that would have

810
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:41,800
Speaker 1: forced me to change. What was the scariest thing about

811
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 1: doing it publicly, putting yourself out there and knowing that

812
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 1: I had tried this before this wasn't the first time obviously,

813
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 1: and that if I quit, it was going to be

814
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:55,839
Speaker 1: very public. It was gonna be very like all these

815
00:42:55,880 --> 00:43:00,640
Speaker 1: people that had congratulated me and encouraged me and said

816
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 1: we're behind you, like and my ten days into this

817
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:07,920
Speaker 1: is gonna be like, Okay, I'm gonna go back to

818
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: doing what I did before. Just was I didn't want

819
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 1: to do that. And and listen, you know, I had

820
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 1: gotten to a point where like, I wasn't happy with myself,

821
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 1: so I didn't want to post pictures of myself. But

822
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:18,440
Speaker 1: on that one I'm like, I'm going to post a

823
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: picture of me at the gym and I'm gonna be

824
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: working out, and um, you know was which is what

825
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 1: I always tell people now, is like, you know, I

826
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 1: didn't lose a hundred thirty pounds in one day, like

827
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:34,319
Speaker 1: it took over a year and so, but it did

828
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 1: take that day one. Because I'll never forget one time

829
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 1: I I signed up to a gym online with the

830
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: purpose of going there like on Monday, and I never

831
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 1: for a calendar year I paid for that gym. I

832
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 1: never went. So it starts with day one. It starts

833
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:50,359
Speaker 1: with that first trip into that gym. And then goes

834
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:53,439
Speaker 1: to day two and there's that consistency. By the way,

835
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 1: you didn't like posting pictures of yourself. Your Instagram feed

836
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,280
Speaker 1: is like the Hugh Hefner of Instagram, So by my self,

837
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 1: so it's with my friends. Yeah, exactly. I guess that's

838
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:08,440
Speaker 1: the key word. I didn't post a picture of you

839
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 1: poin myself. What. Um, so, what kind of response have

840
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: you been getting? You wrote a column that was really

841
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 1: powerful about it and explain a little bit about sort

842
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 1: of from a famous name perspective, the kind of encouragement

843
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: you've got. Well, I mean that's been one of the

844
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: more humbling things. I mean, one month into Kobe Bryant

845
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:34,800
Speaker 1: was as Staples Center. Um, he was courtside that a game,

846
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,720
Speaker 1: and he left and as he's walking, uh to leave,

847
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:41,920
Speaker 1: there's like a swarm of media around him, and I didn't.

848
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I was kind of part of that swarm,

849
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:46,920
Speaker 1: and he noticed me. He's like, oh my god, like,

850
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 1: you look amazing. At that point one month into it,

851
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,880
Speaker 1: I lost forty pounds because you know, it comes off

852
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:54,960
Speaker 1: super quick at the beginning when you're that size and

853
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: you haven't done anything active and you like be poorly

854
00:44:57,600 --> 00:44:59,839
Speaker 1: and so the way it kind of came off quick

855
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:01,879
Speaker 1: and he was and I think he said in the

856
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: face too, He's like, you look fantastic. Keep it up,

857
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: which I always think like that really gave me the

858
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: confidence that at that point, like I was already well

859
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: on my way. But I always thought that was a

860
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,759
Speaker 1: really cool moment. The coolest was UM, I mean just

861
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,400
Speaker 1: in terms of like surreal, in terms of what he

862
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 1: knew was. I was at the Terminator movie JUNKI, mainly

863
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:27,120
Speaker 1: because the Clippers have done a commercial, uh for the

864
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 1: Terminator with UM with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so I sit

865
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 1: down and they're like, you got ten minutes with them,

866
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 1: Like that's all I need. I don't need more than

867
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: ten minutes. As soon as I sit down and hit

868
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 1: record and I'm about to like asking my first question,

869
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 1: and he said, before we begin, I want to congratulate you.

870
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,319
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I probably thinks i'm someone else like

871
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 1: this fine, I'm like, thank you, but like for what again?

872
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:49,319
Speaker 1: You know? And he's like, UM, for all the way

873
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: you've lost that that's incredible. I'm like, wait, like I like,

874
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: how do you know my story? He's like everyone knows

875
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: your story? And he proceeds to tell me, like to

876
00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,480
Speaker 1: tell this room of people, which is like you know

877
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:03,399
Speaker 1: his who who worked for him? Um, you know this

878
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 1: guy you know used to weigh three nine pounds. You

879
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 1: couldn't get a seatbelt to fit he wanted, but he

880
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: knew details of my story that to this day I

881
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:14,440
Speaker 1: think is one of the cooler moments. And then he's like,

882
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 1: you should be in muscle and fitness and I'm like, okay,

883
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:18,880
Speaker 1: you're okay. I think you're going a little bit too

884
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 1: far there, but I appreciate that. But you actually did

885
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 1: get me at the muscle and fitness, which I always

886
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 1: think is like surreal, the whole thing. I mean, I'm

887
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, I was three hundred pounds.

888
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,279
Speaker 1: So to be at the point that I'm at now

889
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,399
Speaker 1: where I I don't want to say, like I'm I'm

890
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:36,480
Speaker 1: I'm happy where I'm at, Like that's crazy to me.

891
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: So what's the hardest thing about not going back to that?

892
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 1: You know? It's just that consistency, you know, of of

893
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: not allowing yourself because like I listen, I still like

894
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: the foods that I like before, I would still rather

895
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 1: uh not work out than work out. But you get

896
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 1: to a point where like that becomes part of your

897
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: routine and you in enjoy having a good salad and

898
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:06,680
Speaker 1: like a file at or salmon or chicken or whatever,

899
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 1: like like you don't have to get an entire pizza

900
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:13,360
Speaker 1: to watch a football game. I mean I correlated or connected,

901
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: like if I'm watching a football game, like that's like

902
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: a sub and a pizza like like like that's the

903
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,200
Speaker 1: only way for me to enjoy. It's like, I know,

904
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: you could just sit down and enjoy the game or

905
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 1: have some chicken or a salaries or something. So it's

906
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 1: been it was hard to break those habits. At this point,

907
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: I have broken them, but I do still have that

908
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,920
Speaker 1: fear of allowing myself to get back because we have

909
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,320
Speaker 1: heard those stories before of someone losing a hundred pounds

910
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 1: and then they gain it back. I definitely don't want

911
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 1: that to happen to me. So, um, you are going

912
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:47,760
Speaker 1: back to Vegas tonight? Why are you going to Vegas?

913
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 1: So So I was there June four when they opened

914
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,280
Speaker 1: up the Veiggest trip for the first time, and since

915
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: March or whatnot, and then so now July one, there's

916
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 1: despite the numbers being what they are, that it is

917
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 1: it is a further um opening of Vegas, Vedara, um Aria,

918
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:12,360
Speaker 1: Mandelaide Bay, four Seasons, Delano, and Waldorf Astoria. So not

919
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: the entire strip, but most of the strip as of

920
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 1: July one, going into that July for fourth weekend, we'll

921
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 1: be back up and running in. To be honest, like,

922
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:22,560
Speaker 1: we'll see how long that last. I mean, I hope

923
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:25,319
Speaker 1: just for like my friends and just people who live

924
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,400
Speaker 1: and work and depend on jobs, that that it does continue.

925
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:33,239
Speaker 1: The numbers post June four, We're not surprising. I mean

926
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 1: I I wrote about how the Cosmo like no one

927
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 1: was wearing a mask, no one, there was no plexiglass there,

928
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: there was no temperatures being take. It was just it

929
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 1: was almost like pre pandemic. And so like that is

930
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 1: My most You video was seventeen million, and it was

931
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: weird because it was very mundane, normal video. It was

932
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,799
Speaker 1: two minutes of me walking the casino floor. But if

933
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:57,360
Speaker 1: you did not notice the dealers wearing a mask, you

934
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,880
Speaker 1: would have thought it was pre pandemic. Wait, I know

935
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,359
Speaker 1: the video you're talking about, and I watched it. You're

936
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 1: telling me that video has been viewed seventeen million times,

937
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:13,759
Speaker 1: million times. That's not and look now it's worse um

938
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,840
Speaker 1: than it was then. I remember seeing that video thinking

939
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:21,280
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous, Like how are these people walking around?

940
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of Connecticut. I haven't left my

941
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:26,840
Speaker 1: house at that point in three months, And like, I

942
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: know now that the governor of Nevada has since mandated masks.

943
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get there tonight. You'll be in all

944
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 1: the places tomorrow, which is what I love about you,

945
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 1: Like you just go, you go where the event is, right,

946
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:40,440
Speaker 1: what do you think it's gonna look like tomorrow? Do

947
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 1: you think? What do you expect? I think July fourth

948
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: weekend will be unique because in Los Angeles they've closed

949
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:50,799
Speaker 1: bars and the beaches. There's no beaches in Los Angeles County. Um,

950
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:54,320
Speaker 1: so I'm wondering are people are gonna stay home, which

951
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: they should, like I'm going there for work, but like,

952
00:49:56,680 --> 00:49:59,600
Speaker 1: are people gonna say at home or are they gonna say, listen,

953
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,800
Speaker 1: we've done the shutdown thing. They're closed to the beaches,

954
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 1: they've closed the bars. Were driving to Vegas because you

955
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 1: can get rooms at are really good rate right now obviously,

956
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 1: so I know you have to wear a mask now,

957
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 1: so that has to be different. I'm hoping that will

958
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 1: be different, but I'm assuming it will be different. Um,

959
00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 1: it should not be as credited the cargo. One thing

960
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: people forget about when they when the June fourth, when

961
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 1: they hoping it up for the first time. I mean,

962
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:27,680
Speaker 1: you have the strip was so closed. So now that

963
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:32,279
Speaker 1: you know the Link and Excalibur and a lot of

964
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 1: other casinos like hopefully gives people some option to spread

965
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: out and not be so packed in. I don't know

966
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:41,560
Speaker 1: what it's gonna look like, you know, you know, because

967
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,920
Speaker 1: now Hockeys per perhaps and I don't know when that's

968
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 1: gonna become official named Vegas as one of their hubs.

969
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:51,760
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like what's happening with Florida, right like, okay,

970
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:53,760
Speaker 1: I mean you you go into a place that's become

971
00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:56,839
Speaker 1: a hotspot right now, so it'll be curious. I mean,

972
00:50:56,880 --> 00:51:00,680
Speaker 1: I I'm kind of I'm interested to see how different

973
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 1: it is. Because the the other interesting thing when I went,

974
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:06,280
Speaker 1: I was like, if you show up to Vegas Thursday

975
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 1: at ten am, which is when I went. I think

976
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:11,840
Speaker 1: it was Thursday, you obviously don't think COVID nineteen is

977
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:13,759
Speaker 1: like that big of a deal, or you're not you're

978
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:15,319
Speaker 1: just not concerned about it. I mean, if you're literally

979
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:18,360
Speaker 1: also have a casino door at ten am Thursday waiting

980
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:21,200
Speaker 1: for them to like, well, you know, come back, Well

981
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: you're you're okay, You're probably not that concerned. So that's

982
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,400
Speaker 1: why so many people at that time didn't wear masks. Thankfully,

983
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:29,719
Speaker 1: hopefully that will change. If the NFL plays this year

984
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:32,920
Speaker 1: and you've got the Las Vegas Raiders and you've got

985
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:37,320
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Rams and the Chargers in your stadium,

986
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:40,120
Speaker 1: which team do you think you cover more games of

987
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 1: those two or the Raiders? If this is normal situations,

988
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:47,520
Speaker 1: I'm for sure Los Angeles. Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely

989
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:50,760
Speaker 1: planning to be at the first game in Vegas, which

990
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 1: I think is kind of like the course we took

991
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 1: at ESPN. I was gonna be at every significant Vegas

992
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:00,400
Speaker 1: and so like when well the hockey team thing changed

993
00:52:00,440 --> 00:52:02,480
Speaker 1: after the shooting. So that was definitely a game that

994
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:03,520
Speaker 1: I had to be up. But I was at their

995
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,640
Speaker 1: first preseason game, their first home game, but then also

996
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:09,920
Speaker 1: going into the playoffs, you know that their entire postseason run.

997
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people saw at that point, to

998
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:14,480
Speaker 1: be honest, that I had moved there because I was

999
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:17,239
Speaker 1: there so often, although I had not, but people thought

1000
00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 1: that I had moved there. All right, Rush, I feel

1001
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna have to name you at some point

1002
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: our official l A to Vegas UH Favorites correspondent Um.

1003
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:30,440
Speaker 1: Try to be safe on the plane, Try to be

1004
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 1: safe when it opens. You look great. I'm glad to

1005
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:36,080
Speaker 1: see you. I'm glad to hear your story is progressing.

1006
00:52:36,520 --> 00:52:40,200
Speaker 1: Enjoy Vegas. But don't you know, stay away from people.

1007
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 1: I will and I will check back and report on

1008
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 1: this beat that you've created. Chad, this is your fault.

1009
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 1: You created this monster, this l A to ve connection. Listen.

1010
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,640
Speaker 1: I just I felt like you were being underutilized and

1011
00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 1: I wanted to get you out. I wanted to get

1012
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,560
Speaker 1: you out of l A. So this was a good opportunity.

1013
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later. I want to thank my guests,

1014
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: Bob Scucci from the Orleans and board Gaming and all

1015
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,120
Speaker 1: the books in the state of Nevada and around the country.

1016
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:13,440
Speaker 1: Bookmaker to the world, Mr Bob Scucci, plus Rashmar Kazi

1017
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:15,520
Speaker 1: of the l A Times, who's on the flight path

1018
00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 1: between l A and Vegas constantly. That's mostly where you

1019
00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: can find them. Download the podcast from Apple Podcast and

1020
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,240
Speaker 1: don't forget. Go to the podcast page, rate and review

1021
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:29,840
Speaker 1: the podcast. The phrase that pays the right side is

1022
00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 1: the winning side. Use that in a review and we

1023
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: will send you Scooch and I will send you a

1024
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: book called The Odds, which I wrote and he was

1025
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 1: a featured player in. We will both autograph it for

1026
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:43,279
Speaker 1: you and send it your way. Something to do during

1027
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 1: the downtime until sports come back. Download from Apple Podcast, Spotify,

1028
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,759
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, it's been

1029
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:52,279
Speaker 1: the Ritz. Love you,